To mark Pride Month, and UNISON’s Year of LGBT+ Workers, we’re speaking to different LGBT+ members about being part of UNISON, and what the Year of LGBT+ Workers means to them. Today it’s Tom’s turn…
Who are you?
I’m Tom Rust (he/him) and I am Hull and East Riding Health Branch’s LGBT+ Officer. I am a cisgender man and identify as queer and am also in a straight presenting relationship to another queer person.
What do you do for a job?
I work as a business support assistant for NHS Humber Health Partnership, and I also act as Hull University Teaching Hospitals’ LGBTQIA+ staff network chair.
How did you get involved with UNISON?
I became involved in UNISON 2 years ago after being invited to join by the previous branch chair who has long been a confidant on LGBT+ issues. As someone who takes LGBT+ Equality extremely seriously, I wanted to turn the negative experiences I’d received in the workplace previously into a catalyst for change. As HER health branch represents thousands of staff, I felt that bringing the staff network and UNISON together as well as taking advantage of the amazing opportunities to share good practice was too good an advantage to pass up. My first conference was LGBT+ Conference in Brighton in 2022 and it really opened my eyes to the amount of work UNISON do to help my community.
How important do you think UNISON’s 2024 Year of LGBT+ workers is?
The Year of LGBT+ Workers is so important, especially in the NHS where all metrics from the Staff Survey indicate that LGBT+ people experience bullying, discrimination and unwanted sexual attention at higher rates compared to cisgender and heterosexual people. With the government’s concerted attacks on the legal status and dignity of trans, non-binary and gender diverse people, it is up to us, the worker, to keep our patients at the heart of all we do. We know that the LGBT+ community on the whole faces enormous health inequality and part of the solution is ensuring our LGBT+ workers are empowered and able to be their unabashed and authentic selves.
What would make the year a success for you?
This year is already a success for the LGBT+ community in general, as visibility is so critical in our fight for true equality – but on a more specific scale, I would love to see more Branches pushing for employers to ensure they have fully inclusive HR policies including trans inclusion policy (there’s a wonderful document on UNISON’s website with a template policy) and to ensure that reps are completing the trans ally training and that branches are thinking inclusively in member recruitment. That would ensure that it’s not just the Year of LGBT+ Workers, but it’s a Year of Equality for all of UNISON.
